Don't Look Back
by amaranthine.oblivion
Summary: When the Battousai's former master Hiko Seijūrō disappears, Kenshin Himura finds himself reunited with an old friend -or is she more?- from the past. The young manslayer must make a choice between the man he was and the manslayer he has become.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hello! This is the first Rurouni Kenshin story that I have done in quite some time, and it's not my normal genre so please don't flame me. I don't know how this story will develop so I'd love to hear any ideas or feedback in the reviews.

**SPOILER ALERT:** This takes place shortly after the events of Samurai X, so if you don't know what happens, it is briefly touched upon. Just a warning.

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**Chapter One: Clouds Gathering**

Battousai the Manslayer staggered down the dark alleyway, barely able to stand, bleeding, exhausted. Suddenly, he froze, his hand automatically coming to rest at the hilt of his sword. At the end of the alley stood the man who must be his his target: a dark, cloaked schemer for the Shinsengumi. He mustered his strength and drew his sword, his speed unparalleled. But his opponent predicted his movements, blocking his sword with an expert stroke that threw him off. He was raising his sword to strike again when his target spoke; words that made him stop cold.

"I expected something better from you, Kenshin," drawled a low, almost playful voice from the depths of the cloak. The manslayer stopped, recognition dawning in his eyes as he realized that he knew that voice, though it had changed since he last heard it. Delicate hands emerged from the long sleeves of the disguise to push back the hood, revealing a young, pretty woman with eyes like wildflowers. Her eyes bored into his; he was speechless for a moment. Recovering himself, he said in a shocked, hollow voice, "Sayuri. Why are you here?" Her expression quickly shifted to a glare as she crossed her arms defiantly over her chest.

"To defeat the Battousai, why else would I be here?" she retorted with ice in her voice. He merely returned her gaze, too tired to rise to the bait of the argument. His expression softening slightly, he looked at her searchingly, trying to decipher her real intent in coming to find him.

"You shouldn't be here. I could have killed you," he said flatly, looking away from her. To his surprise, she replied with a cold laugh.

"You could never kill me with that sword. What have you become? Have you forgotten what you used to stand for, what Hiten Mitsurugi stands for," her voice grew softer as she continued, "What my brother stands for . . ." He turned back, his eyes locking onto hers. The intensity of that look made the air seem to crackle with electricity. He looked affronted, angry, as he replied, "I did this to protect people." His voice was emotionless. Tears welled in the girl's eyes and she brushed them away impatiently.

"And how has that worked out?" she asked, her voice strong despite her tears, "Your sword is stained with the blood of hundreds of men. Now you're nothing more than an infamous manslayer who can't even protect himself." For a split second, his eyes widened and a wounded look crossed the face she knew so well. As quickly as it came, it was gone. His expression shifted back into the guarded look of a hitokiri as he stared at the wall beyond her. Sayuri was desperate to liberate his vulnerability, to find the boy who had been her companion, her guardian. But he was far away; as a manslayer that boy had put up barriers, shut off emotion, anything to dull the sense of wrong that killing had inflicted upon him. The silence between them was thick.

"What happened with Tomoe . . . ," she began, trailing off as his eyes rose to meet hers again, this time narrowed his rage and pain. The young woman determinedly stared back, forcing herself not to look away. Her resolve wavered, but she continued speaking, knowing this could very well be her only chance to speak to him.

"She chose her fate, Kenshin," she said, her voice shaking for the first time, "You couldn't have saved her, you know that." Before she even finished her sentence, he raised his sword, his movements like lightning. Holding the blade less than an inch away from Sayuri's neck, the manslayer stared at her with a look that shook her to the core. There was no doubt in her mind that he would kill her where she stood.

"Don't," he growled, his voice thick with supressed rage. He hated himself for what had happened to Tomoe, his wife and first love. He blamed her death on his mistakes, his past. He was the one who had killed Tomoe, no matter what the circumstances may have been. It was his fault the she was gone forever.

In that moment, he loathed the girl from his past who had accosted him with the demons from his memory. As he stared at her, she watched him passively, taking in the many changes in the boy she had not seen for four years. In her eyes there was only compassion, understanding for his pain. There was not a trace of fear on her face, and it was that, more than anything, that led Kenshin to lower his sword, sliding it into its sheath in one fluid motion. He stood still, his eyes drinking in the apparition in front of him, while she did the same. They could have stood like that for hours, or maybe it was only seconds, each one regarding the other with a subdued sense of wonder. So much had changed in that past four years. Two childhood friends had become adults, struck by the realization that everything was different.

At that moment, almost as if on cue, lightning flashed overhead, illuminating the dark sky for a brief second before the thunder roared after, shaking the ground with its ferocity. From behind them, there was the distinctive sound of an approaching carriage. Kenshin's head whipped around, seeking the source of the sound. He looked at Sayuri, knowing before he spoke that his words would be futile.

"You need to go." He could already tell from the set of her jaw and the stubborn expression on her engaging face what her answer would be. She shook her head adamantly, refusing point black to heed his command.

"I came all this way to find you, and I'm not leaving without talking to you," she asserted, her voice firm. Kenshin had no time for a reply as the carriage has just appeared at the alley's entrance. Pushing her roughly to the side, he moved toward it with caution, taking note of the insignia on the side. This was the man he was going to kill tonight, and they were expecting him. The carriage doors flew open and two Shinsengumi assassins emerged, flying at the Battosai with rapid attacks. Hot anger bubbled in his chest as he concluded that the carriage was a decoy. Exhausted, Kenshin barely managed to keep up with his opponents, his speed beginning to fail him. As he raised his sword to block a blow from above, the other assassin came at him from the side with a fatal attack. Lightning split the sky and the clouds burst open as the man's sword met with another, blocking his attack.

Rain began to pour from the sky and the assassin turned to identify his attacker, a slim figure in a black hood that obscured her face. He lunged at her in retaliation and the fight continued, each pair trading equal blows. Sayuri matched her opponent's strokes with ease, defending herself without effort until he spun around, surprising her with a vertical slash to the torso. She jumped back, narrowly avoiding being split in half. Her disguise, however, split in half as he hacked at her, clinging to her soaked body. Sayuri shrugged out of the cumbersome garment in time to raise her sword to prevent a gash on the head, Taken aback at her identity, her adversary paused, staring at her in confusion.

"A woman?" he murmured, clearly not expecting such a turn of events. The woman, however, took advantage of the distraction and delivered a blow the head with the dull side of her sword, rendering her foe unconscious. She then turned to her long-time friend to see him in a stance that was intended to do one thing: kill instantly. Unable to restrain herself, she intervened on behalf of their bleeding enemy, blocking Kenshin's killing strike with a plea in her eyes.

"Just leave them. Enough blood has been spent tonight," she besieged him earnestly, flinching as he regarded her with a killer's glance. Sheathing his sword, he said nothing, but walked out of the alleyway with a disgusted look on his face. She trailed after him, compensating for his brisk gate by taking long strides until she reached him. He did not say anything, but allowed her to fall into step beside him as he continued walking, heading for an inn he knew would be scarcely populated. Sayuri sighed softly. _I hope I haven't done the wrong thing._

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So? I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I've always wanted to write a story where Hiko had a sister, and this came to me really organically late one night. I wrote it all in one sitting, including the next chapter, which will be up soon. I promise that it won't get sappy; both our characters are more the stoic type. Anyway, I'd love to hear your opinion so R&R? Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**- Hey guys. Thank you for your patience and kind comments. This chapter took a while because, in addition to being incredibly busy, I ended up scrapping the original and completely rewriting. Enjoy.

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**Chapter Two: Rainfall**

The dark sky was a perfect reflection of the brooding expression on the Battousai's face as he walked hurriedly down the glistening, wet street. Sayuri trudged along a step behind him, both of them moving at a sluggish pace in their sodden clothes. Kenshin maintained a stony silence, refusing to make eye contact with the woman who was trying desperately to rectify the situation. He was incensed that she had tracked him down, arriving at the most inopportune moment possible and getting in the way during his fight. She had accosted him, even had the audacity to mention Tomoe. She couldn't even begin to understand all he had been through in the four years that had passed since his departure. Sayuri had no right to pass judgment on him; she barely knew him anymore. And yet, he couldn't forget her words, her accusations.

_What have you become?_

As they walked, Sayuri touched her hand lightly to Kenshin's arm, where he had been wounded, startling him from his reverie.

"You're bleeding," she said softly, feeling a strange sense of guilt for the night's events. He flinched at her touch and she quickly withdrew her hand, feeling discomfited. She had missed him greatly in his long absence, and seeing how he had changed made her heart sink. She had hoped against all hope that the rumors about him were false. The Kenshin she knew was not a cold-blooded killer. But the truth was written on his cheek in the form of a cross-shaped scar; there was no denying that he was not the boy she used to know. Unsure of what to say to him, Sayuri fell silent, leaving the manslayer alone with his thoughts.

As they neared the inn, Kenshin was struck by the sudden realization that he could no longer stay there. He had left his job unfinished and soon the men he had fought would be looking for him, out for his blood. The manslayer quickened his pace, ignoring the fatigue that racked his entire body. He passed the inn without so much as a glance, ignoring the questioning look Sayuri gave him and making for the forest outside the small town. There he would be able to lie low until he was rested enough to Kyoto and to the revolution that had consumed his life.

They traveled in silence until they had reached the outskirts of the town where the rain was coming down in torrents, moving with the gales of wind that had picked up. When her companion still kept to his morose silence, she was unable to restrain her curiosity any longer, bursting out, "Where the hell are we going?"

"_I_," Kenshin replied sharply, putting an emphasis on the word, "am going back to Kyoto. You should go home." Sayuri looked cynically at the mingled coagulation of blood, sweat, and water that covered his arm, shaking her head in disbelief. Despite his quick gait, she could see by the pained way that he moved that he was in no condition to be traveling.

"Idiot," she muttered, though inwardly she was impressed by his strength to keep moving after sustaining injuries during his fights. The stubborn woman's mind was made up; she was not leaving her childhood companion to the elements.

When rain came to an abrupt halt, Sayuri looked up, realizing that they had made it into the forest. They continued further inward until Kenshin collapsed on the damp ground, leaning his battered body against a large black pine tree. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, his breath visible in the cool night air. Sayuri kneeled on the ground next to him, looking concernedly at his wounds, but before she could speak, he headed her off, posing the same question as he had earlier that night.

"Why have you come here?"

The woman shifted to a sitting position, not answering the question immediately. After a few moments of silence, Kenshin opened his eyes, watching her impatiently. Her eyes were unfocused as she stared into the darkness in front of her, recalling her journey to find the man who had changed so much in the long years he had been gone.

Unwilling to deliberate the point, she said simply, "Hiko is gone." Her tone was steady, but the pain was clearly visible in her eyes as she spoke about her brother. Though it was only of many reason she had sought the Battousai, she fell silent, leaving him to decipher the statement on his own.

With a note of trepidation in his voice, Kenshin questioned, "Dead?"

He had not seen Master Hiko since he had walked out of his house to fight in the revolution. Hiko had taken him in when he had no family and been like a father to him, training him in the Hiten Mitsurugi style. Sayuri, Hiko's younger sister, had always worshipped her brother. His departure from the place he had come to know as home had been an angry one, but he still had the utmost respect for the man who had taken him in and imparted to him his knowledge of swordsmanship. Seijuro Hiko had always impressed upon him that swordsmanship was the art of taking lives, no matter how you tried to avoid it. But for some reason, thinking of the man flooded his mind with guilt, something he hadn't allowed himself to feel in years.

"No! No . . . he can't be," Sayuri cried out, "I- I don't know." She paused, taking a deep breath to compose herself. Sayuri stared into Kenshin's blue eyes with her green ones, a somber expression on her delicate face.

"I went after you," she said, a hollow tone to her words.

"What?"

"When you left. I went after you. I thought . . . I thought I'd never see you again," Sayuri confessed, her voice shaking slightly. She had been deeply wounded when Kenshin left. At the tender age of fourteen, she loved him with her whole heart, as both her friend and something deeper. A misty look crossed her countenance as she remembered finding out that Kenshin was married, and then that he had been betrayed by his wife. She had grown since then, rejecting her feelings and relying on her memories to keep Kenshin in her heart, but seeing him now made her wish she had stopped him when she had the chance.

"I was naïve to think that you would be around forever. And I was a fool to come looking for you, but . . ." she trailed off, her voice barely audible. As she looked up at him, Kenshin was struck by how lost she looked. Did he look that way now? He had descended into a deep pit of sin, taking lives because he could. Had he really fallen so far?

"Do you remember what you said to me six years ago?" she asked, her eyes alight with a fervent need to know that he had not forgotten. When he looked confused, she prompted, "Under the waterfall." Recognition dawned in Kenshin's eyes, but he remained silent. It had been so long since he had accessed the memories of his adolescence, and he barely recognized the person he had been in those days.

"You made a promise," she said slowly. "'I'm going to use my sword to be a hero,'" she quoted, both of them recalling the scene with vivid clarity. That day, they had been jumping into the lake from the top of the waterfall, with no trace of the cares they now carried. The future had seemed so far away, and the possibilities endless. With a heartbreaking smile that was a mixture of bittersweet longing and sadness, Sayuri said softly, "I came here because I want you to keep that promise."

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[I don't like this chapter as much as the last one. I know this has quite a bit of dialogue and it's also a bit emotional for my tastes, but don't worry, we'll have more action soon. The transitions suck, I'm sorry. I'd love to hear your opinions and ideas, so please R&R!]


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